Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia Bhd (GCG) is reassessing its small and medium enterprise (SME) financing target for this year to provide an additional 10% to 15% financing from the RM3 billion targeted initially.

CCG’s president and CEO Mohd Zamree Mohd Ishak said for the first half of 2015 (1H15), the company has already approved RM2.2 billion worth of financing to 3,100 SMEs, exceeding its target by 4.9%.

“The period of January to June this has been very encouraging for SMEs despite the challenging business conditions. We are seeing greater support from banks as well as keen interest from SME community.

“The RM2.2 billion approved represents 105% of our year to date target so we are assessing to increase our disbursement by an additional 10% to 15% from the initial target of RM3 billion,” Zamree told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Zamree however said CGC and the banks are mindful of challenges ahead and are managing risks carefully by being selective.

“We are not financing those that are only going to last a few months or a couple of years. The key is the plans that these SMEs have.

“We are supporting those who have genuine needs to open up new business or to enhance their productivity,” he said.

Going into 2H15, Zamree said while the economy is expected to be challenging, the SME community is in a better position to 'weather the storm' than in the past.

Zamree said in line with CGC’s target to increase its loan approval, the company will be launching additional two other products in the 4Q15.

“As it has yet to finalize, we can only reveal that one of the product is meant to cater for suppliers and the other is a scheme for selected groups of special segments,” he said.

Among its existing products is the BizMula-I financing product for start-ups which was launched in May last year.

The product is catered for startup businesses with less than three years in operation and neither collateral nor track record will be needed.

“As at July 2015, we have approved 570 applications valued at RM46 million, surpassing our initial target of providing RM30 million.

“Now we are looking at increasing the fund size to RM65 million,” said Zamree.

In terms of speed, Zamree said the company has been processing and disbursing the loans faster with almost 100% of the loans under the Portfolio Guarantee were approved within three days.

“Overall, we achieved 91% of our turnaround target. In terms of claims payment, it is almost 100%,” he said.

In terms of Bumiputera financing, CGC has approved 1300 loans valued at RM510 million (representing 99% of its year to date target) as at June 30.

The 2015 target is RM900 million to 2750 bumiputera SMEs.

CGC was established in 1972, and its shareholders include Bank Negara Malaysia (major shareholder) and commercial banks.

Its core business focus is to assist SMEs that are without or have inadequate collateral and track record to obtain credit facilities.

It does so by providing guarantee cover on such facilities extended by financial institutions.